After taking 27 years away from the horse industry, Massachusetts native Janae Walker Bronson is back in the pen with her new show partner The Roan Bone.

Growing up in Indiana, Bronson was just eight when she won her first walk-trot class aboard her pony named Poco. From then on she was hooked. At 15 she showed her first Hunter Under Saddle horse to a third place finish in Junior Hunter Under Saddle at the Illinois State Fair behind Gigi (Skelly) Bailey and Denise Rivard. She was the only youth in the class.

“My goal was to get to the Youth World, and we were set to qualify when I was diagnosed with mono and didn’t make the last three shows we needed to qualify,” Bronson recalls. “So I can honestly say that showing at the AQHA World Show has been a goal since I was about 15.”

Bronson stopped showing when she was 18 to attend Purdue University. She graduated with degrees in Political Science and Professional Writing in 1992 and decided to go on to law school at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Law. In 1995 she graduated with her Juris Doctorate, but it took another 12 years for her to get back in the show pen.

Bronson began taking riding lessons again in February of 2007 and by May had bought a double registered APHA/AQHA mare named Shez Packin Iron. The team showed on the East Coast Paint Circuit. In 2009 she met Scott Jones and David Miller of Showstring and switched to Quarter Horses. Since then she has had the opportunity to ride and own some great horses such as Ears The Escape, a 2007 bay mare by Certain Potential and out of Escapist. Together Bronson and Ears The Escape were circuit champions in the Novice Amateur Hunter Under Saddle at the March to the Arch and were also Reserve Champions at the Tom Powers in the Novice/Novice 3-Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle in 2010. Ears The Escape was also the 2010 AQHA High Point Junior Green Hunter Under Saddle horse with Scott Jones, and finished in the Top 10 at the Congress in the Limited Maturity. However, the mare injured her stifle at the NSBA World Show and didn’t get to finish the rest of her 3-year-old year.

“I consider one of my proudest moments seeing her back in the show ring after that injury because the vet team didn’t give her much of a chance to come back,” Bronson says. “I wasn’t ready to give up on her (I’m a little stubborn like that) so we did everything we could to get her back.”

Bronson also owned a horse named A Well Dressed Man that Scott Jones and David Miller started, then sold to Sarah Elder Chabot that became a Congress Champion in the Amateur Hunter Hack and a World Champion in the Junior Working Hunter, as well as The Fire Escape, who was a Reserve Congress Champion in the Masters when Bronson owned him with Scott Jones in the irons, and has had a great career on the West Coast with owner Lauren Rodberg. Bronson says she loves seeing the horses that she bought as prospects go on and have successful careers with their new owners.

This year Bronson is showing The Roan Bone, a 6-year-old bay roan gelding by A Hot Invitation out of Shot by Cupid in Amateur and Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle under the guidance of Brian and Dawn Baker. “Boner” as he is affectionately called has not only excelled in the Hunter Under Saddle pen, but got his start as a Western Pleasure horse while under the guidance of Paul and Tami Thurston.

“We were unexpectedly horse shopping last year and I had found a couple to look at in North Carolina. We wanted to line up a few more to justify the expense of the flights down. Dawn called Paul and Tami Thurston, and they thought they had the perfect horse for me in the barn that had just started to work on the hunter under saddle after being a pleasure horse,” Bronson recalls. “Dawn ended up not being able to make it to North Carolina after cancelled flights, so I looked at him on my own. He was a different type of horse than I usually choose and he was a bay roan, but as soon as Tami trotted him off I knew he was perfect for what I needed. I clicked with him from the very first step we took that day. I’ve learned not to get excited until I see X-Rays, but I told Dawn as soon as I got into the car that I found my horse.”

Bronson says she likes to push herself and that’s what motivates her to show. She enjoys the challenge of competition, of all of the hours of practice and work coming down to the few minutes we are actually in the pen, and credits her trainers for much of her success.

“I credit Scott Jones with teaching me more about how to look at young prospects and also how to choose my spots in the show pen. He and David took me through a lot of ‘novice moments’,” Bronson says. “I am learning from Dawn not to over think things too much, and to just go ride and show. Dawn is such a soft, quiet rider and I learn a lot just by watching.”

When she’s not at a show Bronson is very busy with her career as a Vice President, Legal-Acquisitions and Managed Networks for American Tower Corporation. There she is responsible for the legal aspects of domestic acquisitions and divestitures for the company. Over the course of her career, she has played a role in the acquisition of over $11 billion in assets.

Bronson also enjoys spending time with her husband, Glenn, and their two Australian Shepherds, Jack and Wiggi. The couple also enjoys traveling and spent 10 days in Idaho and Montana trail riding and fly fishing.